Computer reboot problems

Ok, so I have this computer I'm working on. I replaced the motherboard which is almost a perfect match. It's the same board with just some slight
variances. Put it this way, Device Manager recognizes everything, with the same Windows setup.

Anyway, I removed viruses and trojans from the computer. It got really slow at scanning for viruses when scanning "c:\Documents and settings." It
sped up in later sections of the C drive.

I am noticing I cannot get into My Documents, Control Panel, or My computer. I double click on them and the computer reboots. I can access games, I
can access the device manager, and other programs just fine.

I kind of am leaning toward a bad hard drive in some area of it, because of the slow down in the "Documents and Settings," but I'm not sure?
Unless it just has to do with the destruction the viruses caused.

Well, I tried that. It didn't help. I ended up doing a factory restore, which did not finish, because of a "checkpoint" in the system restore
that did not recognize the motherboard as the original one.

I hate crap like this. The Windows XP license should be fine with a motherboard replacement. It's the same board in nearly every way. I tried a
workaround, which in the end, created a corrupt system.

Replacing the motherboard will require a reinstallation, it is practically unavoidable unless you replace like with like, close not being good enough.
Also if I remember correctly, changing the motherboard, which is a major component, basically means a new computer as far as MS are concerned though
this in itself may not be an issue as far as the EULA goes as you can install the same licensed copy on as many PC's as you like provided its you
who's using them and only 1 copy is being used on a pc at any given time. You might be able to get away with performing an "Upgrade" install and
keep all your documents and settings, otherwise, hook your drive up to another PC and copy all your stuff off then reformat the drive and do a fresh
install.

You dont have to reinstall windows after replacing the MB. Just need to boot into safemode before MB swap (can prob do after) and rip the a couple
items from the device manager, like the plug and play system, forgot the other one off hand. On reboot it redetects all hardware.

Can prob do that trick still if you hadn't nuked everything yet.

system board extensions for plug and play bios.. I think was the one... cant think of the second..

It had a code purple error. Which I tried to fix by getting rid of a trigger than prevented it from finishing the install. It finished installing,
but things were messed up.

HP has some sort of tattoo system that identifies the original motherboard with that HP copy of Windows in some way.

I got by this by using a non-HP Windows XP cd. Problems solved.

The motherboard was the same motherboard, with a few slight differences.

Imagine if you got a part for your car at the junk yard, say the fuel pump. You try to start the car, but you can't because it came off of a
different car. Same fuel pump, but it doesn't work because you didn't order it for your exact vehicle. The cars computer system won't accept
it.

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